Saturday, September 18, 2010

Ringo Starr--the last to join the Beatles. A drummer of real ferocious efficiency. Shortest (at 5 ft. 8 in.) in the group; also the lightest (9 stone 6 lb). The only blue-eyed one of the four. A happy-go-lucky type . . . but who still remembers with horror his first appearance at the massive Liverpool Empire, when the curtains swirled back to reveal Ringo still in the process of setting up his drum kit!

Ringo is also the only Beatle to have changed his name for show business purposes. Starkey is the family name--and his parents, Elsie and Harry, gave him the first name Richard, soon shortened to Dick. "Ringo" came about because he wears a minimum of three highly colourful rings on his fingers.

An expressive face has Ringo. Expressive hair, too, dark brown in colour and flop-happy as soon as he starts belabouring his drum kit. It crinkles down towards his eyes--eyes which mirror the excitement of the music he pounds out.

Schooldays

At school age, RIngo journeyed from Saint Silas Infants' School, to Dingle Vale Secondary Modern, to Riversdale Technical College. His school interests? "Not so many," he admits. "I was pretty good at handicrafts--any sort of thing just so long as I could make something, use my hands to create.

"Don't talk to me about the more usual subjects. I was terrible at maths and English. Sporting things didn't really appeal to me. Even now I don't find myself following any special club or team. I don't even bother to read the results. The thing is that music is a full-time business and I wouldn't change it for the world.

His Secret Ambition

"I would have been an engineer, I think, I learned enough at that to be able to return to it should this music business ever fold up on me. And yet I also nurse this crazy ambition to become a motor racing driver.

"I'm crazy about driving--especially night-driving. Would I be good enough to make the grade as a professional? I dunno. All I can say is that I haven't had any convictions yet . . . !"

Ringo, 23 on July 7, is a thoroughly experienced drummer. Once upon a time he appeared in the Liverpool area with the Darktown Skiffle Group, then for three years he went round with Rory Storm and the ever-popular Hurricanes. Three seasons at Butlins' Holiday Camps, where he had to cope with anything and everything, added to his experience.

A Full Professional

Watch him at rehearsals. When he's not actually playing, his hands and sticks are seldom still. He taps out incessant rhythms on his knees, on his snare-drum rim--on anything that doesn't make too much distracting noise. A full professional, able to pick up a cue instantaneously, able to improvise at the drop of a rim-shot.

Yet he says: "I've built up my confident over most things to do with drumming. But my main ambition now is to be able to play everything with either left or right hand. It's hard . . . needs plenty of practice . . . but it's coming along."

Ringo first met the other Beatles in the Jacaranda Club in Liverpool. He doesn't remember much about them individually, except there was a certain sadness about the occasion because their original bass guitarist, a talented young man named Stuart Sutcliffe, had died tragically earlier that year--1962. "I recognised immediately that they were all good musicians and that I'd be more than happy with them," he says now.

Ringo--Business Man

Now the money is pouring in and Ringo is a star. He can think in terms, perhaps, of investing some of his loot in a business. He would go for a ladies' hairdressing salon, he thinks. His parents always thought that would be a good and profitable line for him, despite his own unruly locks. Or perhaps he'd dabble in a car hire firm. That love of cars and driving is never far from his mind.

Relaxation? Ringo admits: "Sometimes I find it hard to unwind, especially after a series of one-nighters. I don't go mad with my free time, though. Maybe I'll just stay at home and listen to records or watch TV. Musically, I go for Rhythm 'n' Blues or Country 'n' Western--I get a great kick out of listening to singers like Brook Benton, or Dinah Washington, Della Reese or Patsy Cline. I collect discs by the Shirelles, too--they've got a very fine feeling for their sort of music."

The film begins in a high class London restaurant named 'Bastards,' where the main protagonist Alex (Alan Pellay) works. Alex, a disgruntled waiter is subject to daily contempt and disgust of the upper class customers and gets fired for being obnoxious and rude to the clientèle. After witnessing an act of terrorism on an embassy, he robs a benefits office and with his new friend goes on the run.

Meanwhile Nosher Powell plays the Home Secretary, a menacing, beer-swilling, fornicating, lovable lout who has his own no-nonsense way of dealing with trouble, usually with his fists. He's the darling of the voters, the press and the gorgeous Fiona (Fiona Richmond), a glamorous KGB agent. He was also the one who ended the terrorist situation that Alex bore witness to earlier in the movie. However Nosher has enemies; including the sinister Commander Fortune (Ronald Allen) who plots a people's revolution with a difference and General Karprov (Dave Beard) and Spider (Lemmy) plot to derail Home Secretary's campaign of becoming Prime Minister.

After assembling a four person team of would be anarchists Alex returns to 'Bastards and lay waste to the staff an employees and begin serving them to other rich people in their new restaurant 'Eat the Rich.' When Commander Fortune and Spider find out about these changes to the menu, they formulate a plot to get rid of the conservative Home Sectary for good.

The soundtrack album was released on the Filmtrax label and featured six tracks by Motörhead, including the track Eat The Rich written especially for the film. The track also appeared on the Motörhead album Rock 'n' Roll and was released in the UK as a single in its own right. It also featured a solo track, "Bess", by Würzel (Motörhead's second guitarist at the time).

The album also featured several pieces of incidental music from the film as well as synth-pop track Pistol In my Pocket by Alan Pillay (credited as Lannah).

* Also the name of an underground culture festival in Trondheim, Norway, focusing primarily on punk and reggae music. * Also the name of a 1997 book on economics by P.J. O'Rourke. * Nosher Powell was well known as a stuntman & stunt coordinator in British cinema & television. He plays an exaggerated version of himself in the film.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Shake it up, baby, now (shake it up, baby)Twist and shout (Come on and twist and shout)Come on baby, now (come on baby)Come on and work it on out (come on and work it on out)

Well, work it on out, honey (work it on out)Girl, you look so good (you know you look so fine)Child, you know you got me goin', now (you know you got me goin')Just like I knew you would (just like I knew you would)

Shake it up, baby, now (shake it up, baby)Twist and shout (come on and twist and shout)C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now (come on baby)Come on and work it on out (come on and work it on out)

Well, listen little girl (listen little girl)You know you twist so fine (you know you twist so fine)Come on and twist a little closer (come on and twist a little closer)Come on and show me that you're mine (come on and show me you're mine)

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Shake it up, baby, now (shake it up, baby)Shake it up, baby, now (come on and twist and shout)Shake it up, baby (shake it up, baby)Come on and work it on out (twist and shout)

Come on baby, shake (come on baby)Shake it, shake it baby (twist and shout)Shake it, shake it, shake it, baby (shake it up, baby)Work it on out (come on and work it on out)

Well, shake it up, baby, now (shake it up, baby)Twist and shout (twist and shout)C'mon c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now (come on baby)Come on and work it on out (work it on out)

Well, work it on out, honey (work it on out)You know you look so good (look so good)You know you got me goin', now (got me goin')Just like I knew you would (like I knew you would)

Well, shake it up, baby, now (shake it up, baby)Twist and shout (twist and shout)C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now (come on baby)Come on and work it on out (work it on out)

You know you twist you little girl (twist, little girl)You know you twist so fine (twist so fine)Come on and twist a little closer, now (twist a little closer)And let me know that you're mine (let me know you're mine)Ah, ah, ah, ahWell shake it up baby, now (shake it up, baby)Twist and shout (twist and shout)C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now (come on baby)Come on and work it on out (work it on out)

You know you twist you little girl (twist, little girl)You know you twist so fine (twist so fine)Come on and twist a little closer, now (twist a little closer)And let me know that you're mine (let me know you're mine)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

I had a strange experience when I was in Rishikesh. I went on a meditation course, where the object was to meditate deeper and deeper and deeper for longer periods of time. The goal is really to plug into the divine energy and to raise your state of consciousness and tune in to the subtler states of consciousness. And all these things, like walking on the water and de-materializing your body at will, are just the sort of things that happen along the way. It's hard to actually explain it, but it was just the feeling of consciousness traveling. I don't know where to; it wasn't up, down, left, right, but there was no body there. You don't feel as though you're missing anything, but, at the same time, the consciousness is complete.